Higher-priced coking coal is likely to affect the steel industry’s transition to greener production methods along with the value-based pricing of iron ore. Higher-priced coking coal increases the tariff of producing steel via blast furnaces, both in absolute terms and compared to other routes. This typically brings about higher steel prices as raw material prices are undergone. It would also accelerate saving money transition in steelmaking as emerging green technologies, such as hydrogen reduction, would are more competitive in contrast to established production methods sooner. The necessity to reline or rebuild blast furnaces roughly every ten to fifteen years at a price that varies between $100 million and $300 million presents steelmakers with clear decision points, so they will have to measure the expense of emerging technologies, for example hydrogen-based direct reduced iron, and choose to switch their blast furnaces.
Increased coke prices would also affect the value-based pricing of iron ore. Prices for several qualities of iron ore products depend upon their iron content in addition to their chemical (mainly phosphorus, alumina, and silica content) and physical composition (lumps versus fines versus pellets). Lower-quality iron ores want more energy to lessen, bringing about higher coke rates within the blast furnace. Higher coking coal prices improve the cost penalty incurred by steelmakers, bringing about higher price penalties for low-grade iron ores. This could affect overall iron ore price dynamics in 2 other ways, depending on the degree of total iron ore demand. In a scenario, if total interest in iron ore can be met solely with high-grade iron ores, chances are that benchmark iron ore prices will continue steady. However, price discounts for lower-grade ore would increase significantly, potentially pushing producers of the material out of the market. In an alternative scenario, if low-grade ore is needed to meet overall demand, both benchmark iron ore prices and discounts could increase significantly, to ensure that low-grade producers would remain in the market as the marginal suppliers.
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